Ruhollah Khomeini
Sayyid Ruhollah Mūsavi Khomeini (Persian: سید روح‌الله موسوی خمینی‎ χomeiˈniː; 24 September 1902 – 3 June 1989), known in the Western world as Ayatollah Khomeini, was the Supreme Leader of Iran from 1979 to 1989. He was a religious extremist authority that enforced fundamentalist Islamic laws and was the defacto leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution that overthrew the last shah (king) of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and the end of 2,500 years of Persian monarchy. His crimes including ordering the mass execution of thousands of Iranian citizens ranging from former prime ministers and military generals/officers from the Shah's regime to religious miniorites, especially the Bahai Faith, homosexuals, prostitutes, and numerous others. He is also responsible for the four decades of tension between Iran and the United States; following his rise to power, all relations between Iran and the U.S. were severed and the two countries have been hostile ever since (though the precise reasons as to why remain a matter of debate.) Khomeini infamously referred to America as "the Great Satan", which his supporters continue to refer to America as to the present day. Biography Khomeini was born in 1902 in Khomeyn, in what is now Iran's Markazi Province. His father was murdered in 1903 when Khomeini was five months old. He began studying the Quran and the Persian language from a young age and was assisted in his religious studies by his relatives, including his mother's cousin and older brother. After World War I arrangements were made for him to study at the Islamic seminary in Isfahan, but he was attracted instead to the seminary in Arak. He was placed under the leadership of Ayatollah Abdul Karim Haeri Yazdi. In 1920, Khomeini moved to Arak and commenced his studies. The following year, Ayatollah Haeri Yazdi transferred to the Islamic seminary in the holy city of Qom, southwest of Tehran, and invited his students to follow. Khomeini accepted the invitation, moved, and took up residence at the Dar al-Shafa school in Qom. Khomeini's studies included Islamic law (sharia) and jurisprudence (fiqh), but by that time, Khomeini had also acquired an interest in poetry and philosophy (irfan). So, upon arriving in Qom, Khomeini sought the guidance of Mirza Ali Akbar Yazdi, a scholar of philosophy and mysticism. Yazdi died in 1924, but Khomeini continued to pursue his interest in philosophy with two other teachers, Javad Aqa Maleki Tabrizi and Rafi'i Qazvini. However, perhaps Khomeini's biggest influences were another teacher, Mirza Muhammad 'Ali Shahabadi, and a variety of historic Sufi mystics, including Mulla Sadra and Ibn Arabi. Khomeini was a marja ("source of emulation") in Twelver Shia Islam, a Mujtahid or faqih (an expert in Sharia) and author of more than 40 books, but he is primarily known for his political activities. He spent more than 15 years in exile for his opposition to the last shah. In his writings and preachings he expanded the theory of welayat-el faqih, the "Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist (clerical authority)", to include theocratic political rule by Islamic jurists. This principle (though not known to the wider public before the revolution), was appended to the new Iranian constitution after being put to a referendum. According to The New York Times, Khomeini called democracy the equivalent of prostitution. Whether Khomeini's ideas are compatible with democracy and whether he intended the Islamic Republic to be democratic is disputed. He was Time magazine's Man of the Year in 1979 for his international influence, and Khomeini has been described as the "virtual face of Shia Islam in Western popular culture". In 1982, he survived one military coup attempt. Khomeini was known for his support of the hostage takers during the Iran hostage crisis, his fatwa calling for the murder of British Indian novelist Salman Rushdie,and for referring to the United States as the "Great Satan" and Soviet Union as the "Lesser Satan." Khomeini has been criticized for these acts and for human rights violations of Iranians (including his ordering of execution of thousands of political prisoners, war criminals and prisoners of the Iran–Iraq War) While his successor, Ali Khamenei, is hardly a saint compare to him, Khomeini is certainly much worse than him. He was also the mastermind behind the 1988 Political Massacre where he secretly ordered the execution of 30,000 people which included many members of the People's Mujahedin of Iran, the Tudeh (Communist) Party, etc. He disliked Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, who disliked him back, due to Saddam being a Sunni Muslim and Khomeini being a Shia Muslim (which Saddam hated). This lead to the Iran-Iraq War from 1980 to 1988, which ultimately ended in a stalemate. He has also been lauded as a "charismatic leader of immense popularity", a "champion of Islamic revival" by Shia scholars, who attempted to establish good relations between Sunnis and Shias, and a major innovator in political theory and religious-oriented populist political strategy. Khomeini held the title of Grand Ayatollah and is officially known as Imam Khomeini inside Iran and by his supporters internationally. He is generally referred to as Ayatollah Khomeini by others. In Iran, his gold-domed tomb in Tehran's Behesht-e Zahrāʾ cemetery has become a shrine for his adherents, and he is legally considered "inviolable", with Iranians regularly punished for insulting him. 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